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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future

So has anyone posted about using the paradigm shift to get free ATB refills?

When you switch paradigms you get a free refill of the ATB bar.

So you can begin a battle by attacking, then immediately switch paradigms after your attack is over so you get an instant free bar and can attack again immediately.

It doesn't work if you're switching paradigms after one of the refills. You have to wait for a new bar for it to work again. So like;

BATTLE START > Attack > Paradigm Shift > Attack > Attack > Paradigm Shift > Attack > Attack > Paradigm Shift > etc.

Lets you do a lot of damage very quickly. Great for capitalizing on enemies who are in break status as well. With this method you can 5-star most battles easily.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
So what bonuses stuff do you get for beating the first game, and the PS3 version does feature 1080p cutscenes and HD audio, right?

Yes. If you have both systems, the PS3 version is the way to go. As far as bonuses go... you unlock a PS3 theme, some monster items, and an item that gives you more luck in the casino.
 

Teknoman

Member
fuck, that just really makes me angry, I really want to play it but I can not deal with random battles anymore, we are past that now.

Just run outside the circle and bam, you've escaped a fight. Besides, nothing wrong with random battles when done right. If it was a fight every 4 steps like certain old school RPGs, I could understand.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
So has anyone posted about using the paradigm shift to get free ATB refills?

When you switch paradigms you get a free refill of the ATB bar.

So you can begin a battle by attacking, then immediately switch paradigms after your attack is over so you get an instant free bar and can attack again immediately.

It doesn't work if you're switching paradigms after one of the refills. You have to wait for a new bar for it to work again. So like;

BATTLE START > Attack > Paradigm Shift > Attack > Attack > Paradigm Shift > Attack > Attack > Paradigm Shift > etc.

Lets you do a lot of damage very quickly. Great for capitalizing on enemies who are in break status as well. With this method you can 5-star most battles easily.

Paradigm cancels have been there since xiii though it's much easier this time around.
 
Paradigm cancels have been there since xiii though it's much easier this time around.

I was wondering if it was in XIII since I never noticed it. The fact that changing paradigms for the first time in XIII made it change each character one at a time made sure I only changed when I needed to, since enemies could still kill you during that animation.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I was wondering if it was in XIII since I never noticed it. The fact that changing paradigms for the first time in XIII made it change each character one at a time made sure I only changed when I needed to, since enemies could still kill you during that animation.

Yeah it's much easier this time around thankfully.
 
Just got ravaged by
Caius in Oerba
but there are other places I could go... is there a specific path that you should be following in terms of difficulty?
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
The problem is that the game doesn't teach you this. Ugh. Luckily I knew from xiii
I think someone asked one of the people showing the game at an event about ATB-cancelling, and they said it was a bug?

I don't really believe that since it's actually more strategic to exploit that sort of thing as opposed to fighting battles in a slower manner.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I someone who asked one of the people showing the game at an event about ATB-cancelling, and they said it was a bug?

I don't really believe that since it's actually more strategic to exploit that sort of thing as opposed to fighting battles in a slower manner.

Probably a glitch the first time around. An implicit mechanic this time. Just my guess
 

Grisby

Member
Just got ravaged by
Caius in Oerba
but there are other places I could go... is there a specific path that you should be following in terms of difficulty?
Took me at least 10 tries to beat him. You have to knock him down fast or else he just keeps healing.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
I don't think it was ever a glitch (ATB canceling) because the timing was very precise. It was something like a hidden 12.0 second cooldown. Not actually based on number of attacks or anything like that.

I don't know what its based on in this one though.

edit: If it feels easier in XIII-2 then they probably just lowered the cooldown time a bit.
 

Aha! Figured as much. He's not impossible to me at this point, but notably more difficult than anything I've faced up to this point.

Took me at least 10 tries to beat him. You have to knock him down fast or else he just keeps healing.

I think I'm just underpowered in general. I have very quick healing and sentinel'ing going on but the damage he deals is too much for me to really recover from as efficiently as I would like.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I don't think it was ever a glitch (ATB canceling) because the timing was very precise. It was something like a hidden 12.0 second cooldown. Not actually based on number of attacks or anything like that.

I don't know what its based on in this one though.

Glitches can be calculative as well
 

Grisby

Member
I think I'm just underpowered in general. I have very quick healing and sentinel'ing going on but the damage he deals is too much for me to really recover from as efficiently as I would like.
Could be. I was too until I realized I had a ton of unused points.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Found the post.
Does anyone know if you can still ATB-cancel in this? The player for this trailer was working too slowly and didn't bother to Optima Shift at the appropriate times to refill the ATB gauge. I thought ATB-cancelling was a great tactic to use in the later missions, so I'm kind of hoping that they keep it here.

...yes... this is important... :lol
I was told it was a bug by a Square representative when I went to NYCC, but it was still in there. This was also the E3 build though, so it might have been changed since.
The point is, ATB cancelling should be liberally used to make battles quicker and more efficient. Especially since you don't have the advantage of casting Haste or equipping Auto-haste at will.

Also, yeah, bosses should be beaten with: buffing/debuffing -> Break w/Ravx3 or Ravx2+Sab or Ravx2+Com -> bash on it with Comx3 or Comx2+Rav, rinse, repeat. Use Com/Rav/Med if needed.

btw I'm completely backpedaling on all my past Noel hate. Aside from Sazh he's immensely more likable and easier to relate to than any of the male characters in FFXIII. Other than his introductory "I'm Noel-- Noel KREISS" he's been a pretty swell dude. He's not really whiny at all and he has a tendency to actually make fun of some of the melodrama which adds some self-awareness to how ridiculous it is sometimes-- something that XIII-1 completely lacked.
Noel is awesome. Especially if you pick all the silly options in the Live Triggers.
 
btw I'm completely backpedaling on all my past Noel hate. Aside from Sazh he's immensely more likable and easier to relate to than any of the male characters in FFXIII. Other than his introductory "I'm Noel-- Noel KREISS" he's been a pretty swell dude. He's not really whiny at all and he has a tendency to actually make fun of some of the melodrama which adds some self-awareness to how ridiculous it is sometimes-- something that XIII-1 completely lacked.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
btw I'm completely backpedaling on all my past Noel hate. Aside from Sazh he's immensely more likable and easier to relate to than any of the male characters in FFXIII. Other than his introductory "I'm Noel-- Noel KREISS" he's been a pretty swell dude. He's not really whiny at all and he has a tendency to actually make fun of some of the melodrama which adds some self-awareness to how ridiculous it is sometimes-- something that XIII-1 completely lacked.

He's a better bro than Snow, anyway.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Are you referring to:
FFXIII Manual said:
Command Input Tips

Press the Circle button to cancel command input, or the Triangle button to prematurely execute the command queue before your ATB gauge is full. This can be useful when you wish to execute only a portion of your stocked commands.
This isn't ATB-cancelling.
 

H3xum

Member
Ok, I'm restarting because I want to max/min to take on Omega earlier and just because I'm stupid like that.

So I'll have Serah hitting big nodes with Rav and Noel big nodes with Com.

Until I can lock another class (Syn for Serah to hit big nodes on odd level and Sab for Noel for str on even) I think i'll just fill in even the small nodes with the characters main class.

I really wish they would have just kept the system from XIII
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
I just hope he doesn't randomly get shittier as the game goes, right now I'm completely fine with him.

I didn't really hate Snow, he more or less kept fluctuating in likability for me.

Hmm, well... just wait till you get to the ending I suppose.
 

Shadow780

Member
Ok, I'm restarting because I want to max/min to take on Omega earlier and just because I'm stupid like that.

So I'll have Serah hitting big nodes with Rav and Noel big nodes with Com.

Until I can lock another class (Syn for Serah to hit big nodes on odd level and Sab for Noel for str on even) I think i'll just fill in even the small nodes with the characters main class.

I really wish they would have just kept the system from XIII

You can't max out stats right? Just building the way you want them to?
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Just unlocked Academia 400 AF. I guess after weakening the flan and beating him, I should go here next? Got 20 hours on the clock now.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Techinically, it's ATB cancel, but not Paradigm Cancels. But yeah, you're right Dark. It's not the same thing.
And cancelling out attacks at the proper time is pretty efficient too, especially if you just need to boost the chain gauge or defeat an enemy quickly. Why wait for the gauge to fill up when you can attack and get rid of something right away?

But for people not in the know who want clarification on this:

Edit: Ok, this is ATB-cancelling: it's Optima Chan... Paradigm Shifting at the right moment to automatically fill your ATB gauge upon finishing off your last attack. This is much faster than just letting your ATB refill normally after unleashing a full queue of attacks.

How do I Optima Change to ATB Cancel correctly?

1. Use the Paradigm you entered the battle with and use the full queue of attacks.
2. At the end of the last attack in your ATB queue, Paradigm Shift.
3. After the Paradigm Shift, you'll have a filled ATB gauge just like that!
4. Unleash a full queue of attacks again.
5. Wait for the ATB gauge to refill normally.
6. Unleash a full queue of attacks.
7. After your last attack, Paradigm Shift again.
8. An automatically filled ATB gauge is given to you again. Hooray.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Noel is the best. He even makes Serah tolerable. I actually look forward to the Live Triggers just for the goofy conversations I can make them have.

Noel is the most down to earth person out of XIII-2's character cast. Out of the entire XIII mythos cast then I would have to put him right next to Sazh.

And cancelling out attacks at the proper time is pretty efficient too, especially if you just need to boost the chain gauge or defeat an enemy quickly. Why wait for the gauge to fill up when you can attack and get rid of something right away?

But for people not in the know who want clarification on this:

Edit: Ok, this is ATB-cancelling: it's Optima Chan... Paradigm Shifting at the right moment to automatically fill your ATB gauge upon finishing off your last attack. This is much faster than just letting your ATB refill normally after unleashing a full queue of attacks.

How do I Optima Change to ATB Cancel correctly?

1. Use the Paradigm you entered the battle with and use the full queue of attacks.
2. At the end of the last attack in your ATB queue, Paradigm Shift.
3. After the Paradigm Shift, you'll have a filled ATB gauge just like that!
4. Unleash a full queue of attacks again.
5. Wait for the ATB gauge to refill normally.
6. Unleash a full queue of attacks.
7. After your last attack, Paradigm Shift again.
8. An automatically filled ATB gauge is given to you again. Hooray.

Yeah, if the dude has only one more hit until he's dead then just freaking cancel it. Rofl. Often times I'm staring more at the paradigm menu than the actual battle menu.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Man, you must be doing everything on the way.

I know. And people in here tell me to beat the story first. But seeing missing fragments in areas is annoying, and I just want to get as much as I can before leaving. :p

I have to go back to Yachas 110 AF now, there is quite a bit of fragments I can get now. lol
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I know. And people in here tell me to beat the story first. But seeing missing fragments in areas is annoying, and I just want to get as much as I can before leaving. :p

I have to go back to Yachas 110 AF now, there is quite a bit of fragments I can get now. lol

I'm pretty sure you can't get certain ones until you've passed certain story points.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
And cancelling out attacks at the proper time is pretty efficient too, especially if you just need to boost the chain gauge or defeat an enemy quickly. Why wait for the gauge to fill up when you can attack and get rid of something right away?

But for people not in the know who want clarification on this:

Edit: Ok, this is ATB-cancelling: it's Optima Chan... Paradigm Shifting at the right moment to automatically fill your ATB gauge upon finishing off your last attack. This is much faster than just letting your ATB refill normally after unleashing a full queue of attacks.

How do I Optima Change to ATB Cancel correctly?

1. Use the Paradigm you entered the battle with and use the full queue of attacks.
2. At the end of the last attack in your ATB queue, Paradigm Shift.
3. After the Paradigm Shift, you'll have a filled ATB gauge just like that!
4. Unleash a full queue of attacks again.
5. Wait for the ATB gauge to refill normally.
6. Unleash a full queue of attacks.
7. After your last attack, Paradigm Shift again.
8. An automatically filled ATB gauge is given to you again. Hooray.
It can get a bit more complex with interrupted attacks. For example, on step 5 if I get out 2/5 attacks and then the enemy starts interrupted me, or maybe your party gets out of sync some other way, you can go ahead and paradigm shift early. The important thing to remember is that the recharge is based on 'time since last free refill' and not 'did you do steps 5-7.'
 

Thoraxes

Member
Just got ravaged by
Caius in Oerba
but there are other places I could go... is there a specific path that you should be following in terms of difficulty?


That must've been why Sunleth was so much easier for me. I was wondering why the difficulty felt so lopsided. I did Sunleth second, and thought
Cauis in Oerba was pretty easy too.
I only beat it by the hair of my chinny, chin chin, but it was super easy with a SAB.
 
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